Page 11 of Modern Romance October 2025 5-8
She wasn’t the innocent who’d let him do anything any more, she was the woman who would push for what she needed from him.
Next moment he’d swept her trousers and panties to her ankles and perched her on the edge of the sofa. And then he was there. On his knees, his hands holding her firmly so he could kiss her—hot and intimate. With every lush nibble, stroke and lick she arched—closer and closer. She moaned, bucking beneath the tormenting erotic touches. He reached up and pressed a hand across her mouth—half silencing her moans—but she took the chance to tease the centre of his palm with her tongue. She needed part of him to kiss.
He growled and nuzzled closer, eating her, fingering where she was hot and wet and hungry. His other hand muffled her scream. Caught in ecstasy, she clutched his hair, her hips writhing, pressing him closer to her. Not that she needed to because his suction on her was total and his hold on her hard. Neither of them relinquished the other even through her violently intense orgasm. But when she finally went limp, he pulled away. She panted, gazing up at him as he then braced both his fists either side of her body, pressing into the arm of the sofa. Not touching her. His muscles rippled with the effort of restraint but she didn’t understand why he was now holding back.
‘Ares?’ she muttered, confused.
He shook his head. Pre-empting her plea. Rejecting her already.
She gritted her teeth. Desperately stopping herself from repeating his name. Frombegging. She dropped her gaze. She wouldn’t let him see he’d just destroyed her. Again. Not with that orgasm, but by not giving her all of himself when she’d given him all of her. He’d given her pleasure. He’d made her lose control. But he hadn’t given her the trust of letting himself go in her arms and body. He’d held back—his body this time, his heartalways. And it hurt.
‘We can’t, Bethan,’ he ground out. ‘I don’t have protection with me and I’m sure the last thing you want is my baby.’
She flinched as he pushed away and stalked across the room, tucking his shirt back into his trousers while she remained sprawled and stunned.
Once upon a time she’d wanted his baby more than anything. She’d been so naïve. Back then he’d skimmed over that discussion, merely mentioning in passing that she and any children would have a wonderful life on Avra. That crumb had been enough for her to envisage a glorious future—her fantastical imagination had grown an entire paradise from that tiny seed. Now humiliation burned. She quickly fixed her trousers and tee and swept up her blazer.
‘That shouldn’t have happened.’ He ruffled his hand through his hair, leaving it no less spiky.
No kidding. Honestly, she wasn’t even sure how it had. But there was a small balm in the fact he was still breathless.
As was she. One moment they’d been arguing, the next they’d exploded into a tawdry encounter in his office. His door hadn’t even been locked and she’d ended up half naked on his sofa—exposed for anyone to see had they walked in. Shame poured through her. She was soweak. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she tried to release the remnants of that bliss to understand what had just happened.Whyhad he made her come but not lost control himself? Had he wanted to exert his sensual power over her? Well, he’d succeeded. She’d given into it—him—so easily. Angry energy fired through her system because she knew he’dwantedher too. She’d heard his groans. She’d felt the hard ridge of his reaction. He’d ravished her like a starving man... Only to reject her when she was at the point of absolute surrender.
She turned her back and closed her eyes against the stinging tears. She needed to toughen up. She’d equated hot sex with heartfelt emotion before. Lust with love. She’d thought his inability to keep his hands off her had meant somethingmore. She knew better now. And she really needed to leave.
She cleared her throat and hauled herself together. ‘Please summon a driver. I’d like to go to my hotel.’
In the ensuing moment of silence regret swamped again, a wave of futile longing that things could’ve been different—had helovedher. But he’d only wanted her and, even then, not enough.
‘We’ll meet with the lawyers tomorrow,’ he answered tightly. ‘Don’t worry, you don’t have to be alone with me again.’
Her humiliation was complete. They both knew that she’d wantedmore—more than he had. Again.
‘I’ll escort you to the car.’
She really didn’t want him to do that, but as she couldn’t figure her way out of the too-high-tech building she had little choice. She stood stiff and silent beside him at the back of the elevator, staring straight ahead. She refused to cry or tremble but she’d never felt as empty or as alone and she’d never ached this much. In all this time, there’d not been a moment as bad as this.
‘Bethan.’
She closed her eyes, blocking his damned intense whisper. She didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. But then his fingers stroked her jaw, coaxing her with all the tenderness she’d needed after such an explicit, raw encounter. But it wastoo late.
‘Look at me,’ he breathed.
Her eyelashes fluttered of their own volition. His fingers gently nudged—turning her face. As she fully opened her eyes she saw he’d turned to face her. She stilled, surprised by the regret blooming inhiseyes. His cheeks flushed as something else that she couldn’t—shouldn’t—figure out deepened in his expression. Something intimate and exposed.
‘Bethan—’
Upbeat music suddenly intruded on their burgeoning intimacy. But there was no music in this too smooth elevator. Bethan heard a gasp but Ares’s sensuous lips were still pressed together. She turned her head and saw the elevator doors had opened. But they weren’t at the basement garage level, they were on another floor and there were people—somanypeople staring in at them.
‘Ares,’ Bethan hissed, wildly casting about for a button to close the doors but the lift was so modern you needed the blasted right biometrics to get it to do anything and she didn’t have them. ‘Ares, close the door.’
He finally turned from her. In a blink he took in the open elevator doors and the staring throng, grasped her arm and drew her forward with him, a wide smile pinned to his arrogant face.
‘Good afternoon, everyone.’
His transformation was instant and total—from intense and stormy to cool but polite. He propelled her so forcefully that she was almost lifted off the ground as he swept them into the hyenas’ den. It happened so fast she had no time to resist.
‘Five minutes,’ he muttered beneath his breath.
